When We Won
by L. Emmist
Summary: The war is over. But who says that makes life any easier for Tobias? --Rated for action. Chapter Two has arrived!--
1. One: The Dream

Disclaimer: "So, why do you feel you need a psychiatrist?  Tell me more about that.  I see.  So, you actually believed that Animorphs and all related characters actually belonged to somebody other than KAA and Scholastic?  Hm.  This sounds serious.  Tell me about your childhood."

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When We Won

by L. Emmist

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It must have been a dream.  I opened my eyes, looking almost suspiciously around my meadow.  They're still out there.  Everywhere.  They still want us.  It had to have been a dream.  The same dream that I had dreamed when I was awake and asleep for the past three years.

Hey.  I'm Tobias.

I spread my wings, and swooped off my branch, raking the long grass of my meadow with my talons.  It was November, and the cold was moving in for the kill.  It wouldn't be a great day for flying.  Not too many thermals.  But still, it was better than yesterday.

I'm Tobias.  I'm a boy, who was transformed into a bird.  A red-tailed hawk, to be exact.

Yesterday, it had been raining like it was the end of the world.  As the night frightened away the sun, it got even colder, and the rain began to turn into sleet.  Sleet hits your wings, weighs you down.  It's impossible to fly through it.

_{Keep flying, Tobias!  You've got to keep flying!  We're blind here!  Which way are we going?}_

Echoes of Jake's voice from my dream.  I pumped my wings, fighting for altitude.  Once I got high enough, I spread my wings wide, and began a long, slow glide downwards.  I was heading towards town.  The dream was still vivid in my mind.  I had to see.  I had to know if . . .

_{I can't keep going!  I can't!  Rachel, it's too heavy!} I screamed, my wings in horrible agony from the strain._

_{I love you, Tobias,} Rachel said privately to me.  I felt a surge of anger and elation.  She was telling me this now?  I gave a desperate cry, and lunged forward, still chasing after them._

_{Turn left!  Left, now!!} _

I'm a boy who was transformed into a bird.  I can change into animals because a dying Andalite prince gave me and my friends the power to do so.

I was above a big office building.  It pumped out a lot of heat.  It wasn't quite a real thermal, but I still took the lift.  The hot air pushed my up a little, and I climbed again for more altitude.  My wings were so sore.

Had it been a dream, or had it happened?  I wasn't sure.  I told myself it was a dream, it had to be a dream.  I wouldn't let myself think it was real, in case it wasn't.  I couldn't bear to think that . . .

_{You're almost there.} I gasped raggedly.  {Almost.}_

_{Once we're there, Tobias, pull out!  Do you hear me?  You have to get out of here!}_

_{I remember the plan, Jake,} I choked, trying to fly through the sleet, trying to see.  I had to guide them.  If I failed, they would all die.  And Earth really would be lost._

_Because I couldn't ever go on without them._

The dying Andalite gave us the power because of the threat.  The Yeerks.  The parasitic aliens that, for the last decade or so, have been secretly, silently, enslaving the population of earth.

_{You're almost there.} _

I was almost there.  And I almost didn't want to look in the water.  What if it wasn't there?  What if there were a couple of beachcombers walking by the shore?  What if this was just another day?

_{You're there,} I said, as my wings failed.  I plummeted down towards the black Earth.  It was like a mouth racing up to swallow me.  I shook, I screamed, thinking of the pain when I finally did open my wings._

_Then I opened them.  And the pain wasn't what I had imagined it would be.  It was worse.  Worse than being tortured by __Taylor__.__  Worse than anything._

_I didn't look back or say goodbyes.  No goodbye could mean enough.  And if I looked back, I would never stop looking.  And then I would be consumed by the fire. _

I was at the beach.  I looked.

Rising out of the water was a huge, twisted, steaming mass of blackened metal.  In the sky swarmed news helicopters.  The beach was a mass of people, most of them reporters.  Behind a barrier reinforced by policemen surged a throng of onlookers.  The waves were churned by the wake of dozens of motorboats, going out to the wreck, coming back.  In the foam washed debris.

Consoles.

Dracon beams.

And the bodies floated there too.  Human.  Taxxon.  Hork-Bajir.

Far below, in the crowd, I could the President of the United States.  He was reading a prepared speech from a teleprompter.  I could see the words as they scrolled up the screen.

". . . and last night, the war we never knew was being fought was won.  Here, in that most unconquered element of earth - the sea - the alien flagship was brought to destruction."

_I felt the explosion behind me.  The world in front of me turned red with the light from the fire. _

I didn't read any more.

It was true.

All of it.

The war was over.

_"And then, gasped Marco, trying to breathe in between laughing, "Jake looks right at the guard.  And he says, 'Hi.  My name's Jake.  I'm a human, not an Andalite.'  He started laughing again.  "Then he's like, 'I just thought I'd clear that up.'"_

The war was over.

_{I behaved exactly according to Andalite tradition,} Ax said._

_Rachel shook her head.  "He stood over him, looked straight in all four eyes, and said, "I now reclaim my brother's honor."_

_I looked at Ax.  He didn't want to talk about it.  {But how did you get onto the bridge in the first place?} I asked.  Ax gave me a glance of gratitude. _

Over.

_"I didn't think we were going to make it," Jake said in a small voice.  We all fell silent, and looked at him.  He looked back at us.  And we all finally saw who he really was._

_He was just a kid. _

Finished.

_"The Yeerks aren't all gone," Cassie said soberly.  "Imagine all the Controllers who are going to have to go through the fugue.  And after that crash, the ocean is going to have to go through a fugue of its own."_

_She stared silently at space.  "But we did win." _

After three years of terror, hate, and grief, we had actually done it.

_Rachel was falling asleep.  We were all exhausted, and it had only been sheer adrenaline that was keeping us going.  But now the others had left, and she was drifting off.  With one hand, she reached up to touch my feathers.  "I love you," she murmured. _

We won.


	2. Two: Cinnabon and Santa Claus

A/N: Sorry, all, I know Chapter One was confusing. A lot of it was just setting up stuff for the rest of the story, so it had to be there even though it seemed weird. Plus, ya know, it was a confusing situation for poor Tobias. Well, hopefully, this next chapter will be more straightforward. At least on the surface...  
  
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Ax stiffly emerged from his scoop. He had been brooding recently - ever since his battle with Visser Three. It's ironic, you know. The one thing he had wanted to do since all this started, and when he finally does it, he retreats, becomes morose and silent.  
  
But I think I understood. I mean, it wasn't just Ax's brother that Visser Three killed. Elfangor was my father, too. And even though his murder had been avenged, I still felt my stomach tighten when I thought of the way in which he had died. I don't know how much I believe in an afterlife, but I just didn't feel like Elfangor was resting any easier now that Visser Three was gone.  
  
I don't know. Maybe he was. Maybe Ax was moody for a completely different reason. Maybe I'd talk with him about it. Someday. Maybe.  
  
{Hey, Ax-man!}  
  
{Hello, Tobias.}  
  
{How are you doing?}  
  
{I am still quite tired from the battle,} he sighed.  
  
I shuffled my sore wings. {Yeah, no kidding.}  
  
He walked with long, listless steps onto the grass. He started to run, to eat. But his hearts weren't in it, and he stopped in the middle of the meadow and looked up at the sky.  
  
I had to break him out of his blue funk somehow. {Hey, I have an idea,} I said. {Why don't you and I go get a Cinnabon?}  
  
He turned one stalk eye back to look at me. It blinked. The rest of his head followed. {I'm not feeling very high-spirited, Tobias. But a Cinnabon does sound enjoyable.}  
  
{Cool,} I said. {Well, get morphed. We'll fly over there and demorph behind the dumpsters.}  
  
{What will we do for clothes and money?}  
  
{Jake and Marco left their clothes there when morphing up for last night, remember?}  
  
{Ah.} His tone had brightened, but a little of the life seeped out again when I mentioned the battle.  
  
I registered it, pretended to ignore it, and kept talking brightly. {So morph already! Sugar calls! Grease calls! The human taste experience awaits!}  
  
His eyes smiled wanly. Then he started to morph. {Yes. This will be fun.} He used the word "fun" like it was a concept he wasn't too clear on.  
  
{'Course it's gonna be fun. We're talking Cinnabon, here, Ax. We're talking the culmination of the human experience.} Well, it was in Ax's book, anyway. As far as Ax is concerned, Aristotle, Newton, and Einstein are kids in the sandbox. But he worships the ground Julia Childs walks on. Although he does use her as an argument for the inefficiency of spoken language.  
  
He morphed, and we began to fly. I mentally braced myself for the trip. I know it felt good to Ax, to stretch his wings and get some perspective on life.  
  
My wings were killing me. I was so tired. But Ax really didn't need to know that. He needed to be cheered up. If he started worrying about me, I'd never get him out of his blue funk. So I clenched my beak tight and flew on through the pain in my wings.  
  
After a few minutes of flying, Ax started to talk. I've noticed that when the others get in the air, it takes them a few minutes, but they loosen up. Any time I want Rachel to tell me what's on her mind, I get her to fly. For them, all troubles melt away in the sky. Their troubles are locked on the ground, and when they rise into the wind, they leave them behind.  
  
I still enjoy the escape of flying. But there was a flock of crows loitering in the trees below us. To our left, above the school, was a big, mean old eagle. Either of which could be a serious threat if they took notice of us. Plus, I felt like I could barely fly, with my wings hurting so badly. I hadn't had any breakfast today, and a hawk doesn't have a big stomach. These and a dozen other worries that only the boy who lives the life of a bird can understand pressed in against my mind and heart.  
  
Ax, fortunately, had no clue. And he was becoming increasingly cheerful as we got closer to the mall.  
  
{I think this was a good idea, Tobias. I'll enjoy the change of scenery.}  
  
{Yeah.}  
  
{I haven't gone to the mall in almost a month. I've noticed that the mall seems to change rapidly. Stores appear and disappear, decorations change overnight.}  
  
{Mm.}  
  
{I had meant to ask you - why are there suddenly so many images of a corpulent man dressed in red everywhere? Is he running for a government position?}  
  
{That's Santa Claus. I wish he'd run for office. We could use a president like him. I mean, come on. If Arnold can be governor . . . } I let the sentence trail off, fighting for breath as I pumped my weary wings for some altitude.  
  
{Who is Santa Claus?}  
  
{It's for Christmas, Ax. Remember Christmas?}  
  
{But it's only early November! Christmas is over a month away!}  
  
{Yeah, but they change all the decorations the night after Halloween.}  
  
{Why?}  
  
{Well, they have to change them sometime.} Keep flying, Tobias.  
  
{Yes, that make sense. But I thought you had another major holiday in between Halloween and Christmas.}  
  
{Thanksgiving, yeah.}  
  
{Thanksgiving,} Ax said, thoughtfully. {Earth has much to be thankful for now.}  
  
{Mhm.}   
  
He fell silent again as his thoughts turned back to the war. I let him think. We were almost there, and I was having trouble staying stable in the wind. After a few minutes, I folded my wings and dove. {Okay, Ax! Let's go get you a Cinnabon!} I called.  
  
{I think humans should have a holiday in honor of Cinnabons,} he announced. 


End file.
